Cecil B. Demille - "Old Wives for New"

The mode of DeMille's films says a lot about what brought huge popular audiences to movie houses in the years after World War I. DeMille became famous making slightly provocative films about beautiful women and "modern" love affairs. In "Old Wives for New," Charles Murdock feels trapped in an unhappy marriage. His wife Sophy has "let herself go" and takes no interest in the world beyond her home. On a camping trip he meets the fascinating Juliet Raeburn, a beautiful young self-made woman he feels is his true soulmate. When rumors circulate that Charles has found a lover, he throws suspicion upon a less reputable woman who has pursued him in order to spare Juliet from social disgrace.
The film touts ideals of fidelity and self-sacrifice. But it also proposes that marriage can be a trap; that both partners must work to merit the other's continuing interest; that "adultery in one's heart" is no sin, but more or less inevitable; and that sometimes, divorce really is the answer.